BM-BronchoLC - A rich bronchoscopy dataset for anatomical landmarks and lung cancer lesion recognition.

Flexible bronchoscopy has revolutionized respiratory disease diagnosis. It offers direct visualization and detection of airway abnormalities, including lung cancer lesions. Accurate identification of airway lesions during flexible bronchoscopy plays an important role in the lung cancer diagnosis. The application of artificial intelligence (AI) aims to support physicians in recognizing anatomical landmarks and lung cancer lesions within bronchoscopic imagery. This work described the development of BM-BronchoLC, a rich bronchoscopy dataset encompassing 106 lung cancer and 102 non-lung cancer patients. The dataset incorporates detailed localization and categorical annotations for both anatomical landmarks and lesions, meticulously conducted by senior doctors at Bach Mai Hospital, Vietnam. To assess the dataset's quality, we evaluate two prevalent AI backbone models, namely UNet++ and ESFPNet, on the image segmentation and classification tasks with single-task and multi-task learning paradigms. We present BM-BronchoLC as a reference dataset in developing AI models to assist diagnostic accuracy for anatomical landmarks and lung cancer lesions in bronchoscopy data.

COPD Patients with Asthma Features in Vietnam: Prevalence and Suitability for Personalized Medicine.

COPD patients with asthma features usually benefit from inhaled corticosteroids (ICS)-containing regimens, but their burden and diagnostic criteria remain to be established. The aims of this study were to estimate the proportion of patients with asthma features among patients with physician-diagnosed COPD and to investigate differences in clinical characteristics and current medications between COPD patients with asthma features and patients with COPD alone. A cross-sectional study was conducted at two respiratory out-patient clinics at the University Medical Center in Ho Chi Minh City and Bach Mai Hospital in Ha Noi, Vietnam. COPD patients with asthma features were identified by attending physicians following the approach recommended by the GINA/GOLD joint committee. Of the 332 patients screened, 300 were enrolled in the study. The proportion of COPD patients with asthma features was 27.3% (95% confidence interval (95% CI) 22.6-32.6%). COPD patients with asthma features were younger, with higher FEV1 values, a greater proportion of positive bronchodilator reversibility tests, higher blood eosinophil count, and were more often treated with ICS/LABA (ICS/long-acting bronchodilator beta-2 agonist) than patients with COPD alone. The prevalence of COPD patients with asthma features is particularly high in Vietnam thus requiring appropriate action plans in clinical practice.

Telephone-Based Smoking Cessation Counseling Service: Satisfaction and Outcomes in Vietnamese Smokers.

BACKGROUND: As a method to acknowledge the devastating health and economic impacts of tobacco usage worldwide, telephone-based tobacco cessation counseling services have emerged as a potential tool to aid people in their quitting process. This study explores the satisfaction of smokers who use the QUITLINE service and factors associated with their quit attempts and cessation. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey of 110 participants was conducted from June to July 2016 at the Respiratory Center at Bach Mai Hospital, Hanoi, Vietnam. Multivariate logistic regression was used, and it was found that the percentage of people quitting smoking increased after using the service. RESULTS: In total, 65.5% of participants were completely satisfied with the counseling service. The mean score of staff/s capacity/responsiveness, motivation, and service convenience were 4.37 ± 0.78, 4.30 ± 0.81, and 4.27 ± 0.66, respectively. The smoking relapse rate was relatively high at 58.3%, which mainly resulted from cravings and busy work (26.2% and 14.3%, respectively). A higher satisfaction score in "Staffs' capacity and responsiveness" was negatively associated with "ever tried to quit smoking in consecutive 24 h" and actually quit smoking after receiving counseling. Meanwhile, a higher score in the "Motivation" domain was positively associated with both quit attempt indicators as well as actually quitting smoking after receiving counseling (OR = 9.48; 95%CI = 2.27; 39.57). CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that it is crucial for decision makers to place more focus on countermeasures for smoking relapse and to strengthen the capacity of staff, especially in motivating clients. Interventions should also be maintained throughout a long period of time to prevent relapse.

Population Pharmacokinetics and Dose Optimization of Ceftazidime and Imipenem in Patients with Acute Exacerbations of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

BACKGROUND: Ceftazidime and imipenem have been increasingly used to treat Acute Exacerbations of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (AECOPD) due to their extended-spectrum covering Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This study aims to describe the population pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) target attainment for ceftazidime and imipenem in patients with AECOPD. METHODS: We conducted a prospective PK study at Bach Mai Hospital (Viet Nam). A total of 50 (ceftazidime) and 44 (imipenem) patients with AECOPD were enrolled. Population PK analysis was performed using Monolix 2019R1 and Monte Carlo simulations were conducted to determine the optimal dose regimen with respect to the attainment of 60% and 40% fT>MIC for ceftazidime and imipenem, respectively. A dosing algorithm was developed to identify optimal treatment doses. RESULTS: Ceftazidime and imipenem PK was best described by a one-compartment population model with a volume of distribution and clearance of 23.7 L and 8.74 L/h for ceftazidime and 15.1 L and 7.88 L/h for imipenem, respectively. Cockcroft-Gault creatinine clearance represented a significant covariate affecting the clearance of both drugs. Increased doses with prolonged infusion were found to cover pathogens with reduced susceptibility. CONCLUSIONS: This study describes a novel and versatile three-level dosing algorithm based on patients' renal function and characteristic of the infective pathogen to explore ceftazidime and imipenem optimal regimen for AECOPD.

A clinic-based direct real-time fluorescent reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay for influenza virus.

Seasonal influenza virus causes acute respiratory tract infections, which can be severe in children and the elderly. At present, rapid influenza diagnostic tests (RIDTs) are popular at clinical sites because they enable early diagnosis and avoid unnecessary use of antibiotics; in addition, high risk patients with underlying disease can be given antiviral drugs. However, the sensitivity and specificity of some of those tests are relatively poor. To overcome these problems, nucleic acid-based molecular point-of-care tests have been developed; however, they are significantly more expensive than RIDTs. Previously, the authors developed real-time reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (rRT-LAMP) assays using a quenching primer to detect influenza viruses. However, the assay is limited to laboratory use because it requires a nucleic acid purification step and preparation of reaction mixtures on ice. Therefore, the authors developed and validated direct rRT-LAMP assays that require no nucleic acid purification steps using commercial RNA isolation kits, and no storage and handling of reagents on ice. These assays can be performed within 10-30 min and require only mixing a clinical specimen with extraction reagent followed by addition of a lyophilized detection reagent. The established assay showed high sensitivity and specificity when validated using 310 clinical specimens. Thus, the assay is a powerful tool for molecular diagnosis of seasonal influenza virus infection in the clinic.

Evaluation of rapid diagnostic tests for typhoid fever.

Laboratory diagnosis of typhoid fever requires isolation and identification of Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi. In many areas where this disease is endemic, laboratory capability is limited. Recent advances in molecular immunology have led to the identification of sensitive and specific markers for typhoid fever and technology to manufacture practical and inexpensive kits for their rapid detection. We evaluated three commercial kits for serologic diagnosis of typhoid fever. Patients presenting with > or = 4 days of fever were enrolled at two hospitals in Southern Vietnam. Cases were patients with serotype Typhi isolated from blood samples, and controls were patients with other laboratory-confirmed illnesses. Serotype Typhi isolates were confirmed and tested for antimicrobial susceptibility at the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City. The Widal test was run at the hospitals and the Pasteur Institute. Sera were shipped frozen to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and tested by using Multi-Test Dip-S-Ticks, TyphiDot, and TUBEX to detect immunoglobulin G (IgG), IgG and IgM, and IgM, respectively. Package insert protocol instructions were followed. We enrolled 59 patients and 21 controls. The sensitivity and specificity findings were as follows: 89 and 53% for Multi-Test Dip-S-Ticks, 79 and 89% for TyphiDot, 78 and 89% for TUBEX, and 64 and 76% for Widal testing in hospitals and 61% and 100% for Widal testing at the Pasteur Institute. For all assays, the sensitivity was highest in the second week of illness. The Widal test was insensitive and displayed interoperator variability. Two rapid kits, TyphiDot and TUBEX, demonstrated promising results.